The Center At West Park to Present KISSING FRIENDS By Sheer Spectacle

The Center at West Park will conclude its annual Evolution Festival this weekend with 3 performances of Kissing Friends, a theater/dance piece by Sheer Spectacle.

Presented by Philadelphia-based dance collective Sheer Spectacle the performance is a collection of stories told by a group of young artists gathering to share their greatest hopes and desires. Kissing Friends is an intimate theatrical experience of storybook narrations spoken/created in collaboration with the cast. The movement and dialogue fold in and out of reality and daydreams inside the overarching container of friendship in relation to intimacy. As the show continues to unfold the audience acts as the performers' inner psyche, a mirror reflecting our dreams back at us. The viewers will experience these stories, along with flashy movements in unison that will signify a strong sense of togetherness. Rituals will crescendo into an uproar to sounds by Noel Harrison, Celine Dion, and several others. The audience might begin to ask themselves; "What's at stake for these friends?", "What is signified inside of an opening kiss?". Singing, thrashing, yelling, slow-aborning affection, tensions running high, and eruptive meltdowns take us to a place far from reality that may or may not be a dreamland.

Kissing Friends runs for three performances on September 29th and 30th, 2023, at The Center at West Park in New York City (165 W 86th St.). You can learn more about the show and the festival at https://www.centeratwestpark.org/evolution-festival-2023

Artist Bios:

Kali Petrizzo was born in Bricktown, New Jersey, in 1997, and Lily Mello was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1998. The duo began collaborating in 2018 while in school at The University of the Arts. In 2019/2020 they both received their BFA in dance from the university, under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield. Their developing research is in, "Drama as Action." Kali and Lily utilize voice performance alongside grandiose movement and queer intimacy to make performances embellished with expressionism and fantasy. In January of 2022, they founded the dance theater company, Sheer Spectacle, which currently is based out of Philadelphia, PA. Sheer Spectacle debuted their first self-produced evening-length work, Ripped Tights, Stoned Heart to three sold-out performances in May of 2022.

From August - December 2022 they were commissioned by the University of the Arts to create a new work for third and fourth-year undergraduate students. The 19-minute work, I Spit Out the Gold, explored triumphant wins, devastating losses, and the aftermath of failing in dedicated dreams. This April, Sheer Spectacle made its NYC debut at the 92nd St Y. They were selected by Dante Puleio to share an excerpt of I Spit Out the Gold as part of the Future Dance Festival, curated by Taryn Kaschock Russell.

Sheer Spectacle has been in process since February 2023 for their newest full-length, Kissing Friends. This work will premier at Philadelphia's Fringe Arts Festival, with support from the Cannonball Festival this September. They are so excited to be back in NYC to share Kissing Friends for Evolution Dance Festival at The Center at West Park's Sanctuary Space.

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